Scottish Parliament

Written Answers

Wednesday 2 February 2000

Scottish Executive

Agriculture

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it will make to Her Majesty’s Government in relation to any proposed pesticide tax, in particular regarding what implications such as a tax might have on Scottish agricultural jobs and what evidence, if any, exists to show that some pesticides currently used by farmers have improved the quality of grain.

Ross Finnie: The UK Government asked the agrochemical industry and others to offer proposals to reduce the environmental impact of pesticide use. Proposals now brought forward by the British Agrochemicals Association will form the basis of discussions between the UK Government, industry and other interested parties over what form a partnership approach might take. It has been announced by HM Treasury that subject to further detailed discussions, the Chancellor will not proceed with the introduction of a pesticides tax in the Budget. The Scottish Executive will keep in close touch with developments on this.

Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning

Mr John Munro (Ross, Skye and Inverness West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what the criteria are for setting the level of amnesic shellfish poisoning in scallops at 20 micrograms of domoic acid per gram using the High Performance Liquid Chromatography method.

Susan Deacon: The maximum limit for ASP in shellfish of 20 micrograms of domoic acid per gram came into force throughout the EU in 1998 and was based on an internationally agreed limit.

  This maximum limit and the use of the High Performance Liquid Chromatography method are specified in Directive 91/492/EEC.

Education

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce local pay bargaining for teachers.

Mr Sam Galbraith: No. The Executive stands by the principle of a national agreement on pay and conditions for teachers. Future machinery for determining teachers pay is one of the issues being examined by the Independent Committee of Inquiry into professional conditions of service for teachers, under the Chairmanship of Professor Gavin McCrone. The Committee is due to report by end of May.

Education

Nick Johnston (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list those organisations which it funds directly and are engaged in the promotion of sex education.

Mr Sam Galbraith: The organisations funded by the Scottish Executive and engaged in the delivery of health education, including sex education, are as follows:

  The Health Education Board for Scotland

  National Aids Trust

  The Scottish Voluntary HIV/AIDS Forum

  The Family Planning Association Scotland

  Fertility Care Scotland

  Lothian Brook Advisory Centre

  Waverley Trust

  Positive Steps Partnership

  Health Gay Scotland

  Shortly, as envisaged in the White Paper Towards a Healthier Scotland the Executive will also commence funding the demonstration project Healthy Respect.

  Additionally, many voluntary youth organisations in receipt of Scottish Executive funding (for example Youth Clubs Scotland, YMCA, the Scouts and the Guides) undertake work with young people on health related issues. Health education, however is only one aspect of their work with young people.

Education

Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to assist and advise local authorities in securing additional funding, including Public Private Partnership funding, for the repair of school buildings.

Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive assists and advises councils on all possible procurement approaches, including Public Private Partnerships. In addition, there are well established arrangements under which local authorities are advised each year of the capital allocations for their capital programmes, including work on school buildings. In partnership with CoSLA we have agreed work on school buildings as a key priority for local authorities. Authorities are also advised of the resources available for the repair of school buildings under the New Deal for Schools.

Fuel Poverty

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive why the Scottish Homes analysis of fuel poverty from the Housing Condition Survey 1996 has not yet been released into the public domain and when it intends to make this information public.

Mr Frank McAveety: Work on the analysis has not yet been completed.

Health

Dennis Canavan (Falkirk West): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-798 by Susan Deacon on 18 August 1999, what is the number of people with personality disorders who are currently being detained in a state hospital in Scotland.

Susan Deacon: The State Hospital estimates that very few patients are currently detained with a diagnosis of only personality disorder.

Health

Dennis Canavan (Falkirk West): To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is of the number of people in Scotland with personality disorders.

Susan Deacon: This information is not available centrally.

Health

Nick Johnston (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the cumulative effect of estate revaluation on the finances of the NHS in the current financial year.

Susan Deacon: The NHS Estate Revaluation took effect from 1 April 1999. The valuation of Land & Buildings in the NHS in Scotland reported in the 1998-99 Annual Accounts was £2,730,992,000 as at 31 March 1999. The revaluation exercise has increased this figure to £2,746,300,000, an increase of only 0.56% for all Scotland.

  The health boards and Trusts are required to pay capital charges on the valuation of their net relevant assets. After the results of the revaluation exercise were known, the service was asked to resubmit their Capital Charges estimates for 1999-2000. These returns have indicated that the net movement in Capital Charges is a reduction of 1.2%.

Health

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the incidence of leukaemia by ward in the Motherwell and Wishaw area over the longest annual period for which figures are available.

Susan Deacon: I list below the   observed and expected incidence of leukaemia for residents of postcode sectors ML1 and ML2, representing the Motherwell and Wishaw areas based on rates for Lanarkshire and Scotland for the period 1981-1996:

  Observed and expected number of leukaemia cases in postcode sectors ML1 and ML2, based on rates for Lanarkshire and Scotland; all ages: 1981-1996

  


 


Observed registrations

  

Expected registrations

  

O/E

  

95% Confidence Interval

  



lower

  

upper

  



Based on Lanarkshire 

  

226

  

209.5

  

1.08

  

0.95

  

1.23

  



Based on Scotland

  

226

  

225.6

  

1.00

  

0.88

  

1.14

  



  Source: SOCRATES (Scottish cancer registration database); these figures are based on a snapshot of the database taken in December 1999.

  Population data supplied to ISD Scotland by GRO(S).

  The data suggest that there is nothing unusual about the incidence of leukaemia amongst residents of the Motherwell and Wishaw areas when compared with Lanarkshire Health Board or Scotland as a whole.

Health

Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to improve services for sufferers from multiple sclerosis.

Susan Deacon: The Scottish Needs Assessment Programme (SNAP) has established a Working Group to assess the total health needs of people suffering from multiple sclerosis. The Group's report, which will describe the epidemiology of the disease, the impact it has on patients and service provision, will provide consistent advice across Scotland on the appropriate care of people suffering from the disease and the service input required at the different stages of their condition.

  The report should assist health boards in planning services for these patients.

Health

Nick Johnston (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-855 by Susan Deacon on 16 December 1999, to detail the research into prostate cancer funded by the Scottish Executive.

Susan Deacon: Last year, the Scottish Executive funded 20 cancer-related research projects with a total value of nearly £2.2 million, and allocated some £4.7 million general funding to the NHS in Scotland in support of other cancer studies. Although this research may not be specific to prostate cancer research, the findings of the studies will be relevant. Details of these studies are available from the National Research Register, a copy of which is in SPICe.

Health

Lewis Macdonald (Aberdeen Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make a statement on the issues raised by the trial of Dr Harold Shipman.

Susan Deacon: Dr Harold Shipman was found guilty at Preston Crown Court on Monday 31 January on 15 charges of murder and of forging the will of one of his patients. On behalf of the Scottish Executive, I express my deepest sympathy for the relatives and friends of all those who died.

  The crimes took place in England but have implications for Scotland also. Our priority is to ensure that patients are safe, and to maintain confidence in the vast majority of doctors who are dedicated and hardworking. In discussion with the profession, we shall therefore be taking forward a number of proposals to ensure that all GPs are properly monitored and to tighten up the mechanisms to deal with those few who fail their patients.

  I intend to bring forward Regulations to require the removal from health boards' and Primary Care Trusts' medical lists of GPs guilty of serious crimes and to make it harder for potential GPs to conceal any past convictions when applying to practice. I intend also to make it compulsory for GPs to report deaths on their premises. I shall also be looking critically at the disciplinary process, to establish whether more streamlined and speedy procedures are needed to protect patients.

  I will also build on the excellent work already being done by contractors, Local Health Care Co-operatives and Primary Care Trusts to develop bottom-up quality assurance. We have already done a great deal to support this – for example, by creating the Clinical Standards Board to set standards and identify where local teams need to improve.

  In the House of Commons yesterday, the Secretary of State for Health announced that he is setting up an independent inquiry into the issues raised and that the Home Secretary will conduct a review of matters relating to death certification. We will keep in close touch with this review process and learn lessons from the findings.

Housing

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many three-apartment local authority flats could have had full central heating installed if money spent on stock transfer feasibility studies in financial years 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999-2000 was spent on such installations instead.

Ms Wendy Alexander: The cost of installing full central heating in three-apartment local authority flats would be determined by a number of factors including floor space, type of central heating to be installed and the extent to which full or partial central heating already exists in the stock. This information is not held centrally and so no estimate can be made.

Housing

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any plans regarding the right to buy and housing associations with charitable status.

Ms Wendy Alexander: There are no plans to change the current provisions which exclude, from the right to buy, tenants of housing associations that are registered charities.

Housing

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the proposals on the right to buy for housing association tenants will be modified to take into account particular problems in areas in which social housing is in a minority.

Ms Wendy Alexander: In the Scottish Executive paper A New Single Social Tenancy for Scotland: Rights, Obligations and Opportunities we made it clear that our aim is to create more mixed communities in all parts of Scotland. To achieve this objective, we will ensure that Scottish Homes directs its resources for investment in new socially rented housing to those areas where there is clear, demonstrable need.

Housing

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the ending of the Right to Buy Scheme for anti-social tenants would in any way act as a deterrent of such behaviour and, if so, for what reasons.

Ms Wendy Alexander: Yes. There is evidence of tenants desire to exercise the right to buy and denying this right to anti-social tenants, as part of a package of measures, will act as a deterrent of such behaviour.

Legal Aid

Dr Winnie Ewing (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will change civil legal aid by lowering contribution levels and scrapping automatic contributions from women who earn more than they would receive by way of state benefits in order to make it easier for women victims of abuse to take court action.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Scottish Executive believe that it is right that those who can afford to pay a contribution towards the costs of their case should be required to do so. In setting the levels of contribution payable, by all civil legal aid applicants, the Scottish Executive gives due cognisance to the principle that the most needy should receive the help they require.

  The level of contribution payable is determined solely by the amount of disposable income or capital which an applicant has available. In assessing disposable income, the Scottish Legal Aid Board makes allowance for essential living expenses such as reasonable employment expenses, dependant children, council tax and other housing costs.

Post Offices

David Mundell (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is considering extending the system of rates relief which currently applies to rural shops and sub-post offices to pubs and small hotels.

Mr Jack McConnell: No.

Prison Service

Dennis Canavan (Falkirk West): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are currently being held in Scottish prisons broken down by gender and socio-economic class.

Mr Jim Wallace: The latest figures show that the number of people held in Scottish prisons on 14 January was 5,612: 5,433 males and 179 females.

  Information by socio-economic class is not available.

Public Safety

Dr Winnie Ewing (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what aspects of public safety in relation to nuclear plants in Scotland are under the jurisdiction of the Scottish Parliament.

Henry McLeish: Safety at nuclear plants in Scotland is a reserved matter. Nuclear licensed site operators are responsible for site safety and regulation is the responsibility of the Health and Safety Executive’s Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry is statutorily responsible for all aspects of nuclear safety. However, the Scottish Executive retains day to day responsibility for co-ordinating the response to any civil nuclear emergency in Scotland.

Rural Affairs

George Lyon (Argyll and Bute) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total administration costs are for all Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department current schemes, and whether these costs are met from within the schemes’ funds or from a separate budget.

Ross Finnie: The administration costs for Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department schemes are met from central Scottish Executive Administration provision. The Rural Affairs Department’s share of directly allocated administrative costs for the financial year 2000-01 is £27.739 million.

Young People

Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the announcement by the Minister for Children and Education on 12 January 2000, whether it will outline the remit and timescale of the working party set up to examine the proposed transfer of Department of Social Security resources for young people leaving care to local authorities.

Mr Sam Galbraith: The working party will examine how best local authority resources, enhanced by the transfer of DSS resources, might operate for the good of young people requiring throughcare and aftercare and offer advice to Scottish Ministers. This will include consideration of such issues as ring-fencing of resources; a safety net for young people who have lost contact with their local authority; and an appeals procedure.

  The working party will report periodically to Ministers to assist appropriate implementation procedures to come into effect in the course of next year.

Young People

Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the announcement by the Minister for Children and Education on 12 January 2000, whether it will confirm the membership of the working party set up to examine the proposed transfer of Department of Social Security resources for young people leaving care to local authorities.

Mr Sam Galbraith: The working party comprises the following people nominated by their respective statutory and voluntary organisations:

  


Association of Directors of Social 

  Work

  

Monica Boyle

  



David Heaney

  



Fred McBride

  



Convention of Scottish Local Authorities

  

Steve Driscoll

  



Anne Marie Stewart

  



Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare 

  Forum

  

Tam Baillie

  



Vivienne Boyle

  



The Association of Careers Service 

  Companies in Scotland

  

Mary Carson

  



Jean Geddes

  



Who Cares? Scotland

  

Dierdre Watson

  



Stephen McGinley

  



Scottish Council for Single Homeless

  

John Dickie

  



  The working group will be chaired and supported by Scottish Executive officials.

Young People

Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish the responses to the consultation on the proposed transfer of Department of Social Security resources for young care leavers to local authorities.

Mr Sam Galbraith: Copies of individual responses may be obtained in the usual way from the Scottish Executive unless individuals have asked that their reply remain confidential.

Young People

Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to introduce legislation to place local authorities under a legal duty to assess and meet the care and support needs of children and young people leaving care.

Mr Sam Galbraith: Under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, local authorities already have a duty to provide advice and assistance with a view to preparing a young person for when he or she is no longer looked after by a local authority. Local authorities are also required to advise, guide and assist a young person who was looked after at school leaving age or thereafter up to the age of 19 unless the local authority are satisfied that the young person’s welfare does not require it. Local authority assistance, which may include assistance in kind or in cash, may continue until the young person is 21 years old.